FIDE President explained to reporters why the Russians associated chess with Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov according to the latest opinion poll.

"Kasparov and Karpov are remembered by the longest match. For half a year, they played in different places, which all the Soviet Union fans wanted to visit. Chess represented the ideology and the state policy in the USSR. However, only the older people remember Karpov and Kasparov today, while the young people know new names", said Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

According to him, the period from the mid to late 90's was a disaster for the Russian chess history. However, currently chess is experiencing a rebirth."There is a chess boom all over the world, including Asia and Africa. The FIDE currently comprises 190 countries; 600 million people play chess. The FIDE takes the first place in the number of ongoing competitions. Chess is introduced as a compulsory subject in many countries", said Ilyumzhinov.He noted that the modern technologies help chess players these days. There are tens of thousands of sites, where you can play with a real opponent using the Internet. The computer chess games designed as cartoons were developed for children."The first company to produce such cartoons has been created by me together with Kasparov in 1990. I recently asked him to go back to chess and lead the programme of the development of chess in schools. Unfortunately, he is being overshadowed by politics, although everyone still perceives him as GM Kasparov, the World Champion", said the head of FIDE.